Presentación de Quinten Farmer ( @quintendf ) en WebConfLatino Panamá 2011 acerca de oportunidades para emprendedores latinos para lanzar sus proyectos en la web globalmente.
Quinten trabaja para onSwipe.com, empresa a quien se unió después de su participación en la incubadora/aceleradora de empresas TechStars.org en New York.
14. Tearing Down The Wall:
Start A Company With Less Than $500
Don’t Need To Raise VC Money Early
15.
16. Why Is This Perfect For International
Entrepreneurs?
“Low Burn By Design, Not Crisis”
Start A Company With Less Than $500
Don’t Need To Raise VC Money Early
45. How To Contact Me:
Twitter: @quintendf
Website: www.quintenfarmer.com
Email: quinten@quintenfarmer.com
Hinweis der Redaktion
1. Hello, Thank you- My name is Quinten Farmer, and today I am going to talk about why you, as entrenpreneurs, should “build globally, and do it now”\n
A bit of background on myself- previously, I worked with the Techstars program in NYC. I had the privilege to work with a truly incredible group of people in creating the first ever Techstars program in NYC.\n
After the end of Techstars, I joined Onswipe, a platform for insanely easy tablet publishing. With Onswipe, I manage our relationships with our publishing partners, bringing together some of the worlds most iconic publications along with the “new influencers” of the online world, in creating a new model for how content can be consumed on these revolutionary tablet devices. \n
Today, I want to cover 3 main topics. One, I want to provide a little bit of context around my experience with Techstars, and talk about why I believe so strongly in the Techstars model. Second, based on many Techstar’s companies success using the Lean Startup methodology, I will talk about how this model can be applied for international entrepreneurs. Finally, I will walk through a case study of an international lean startup, using Onswipe as a perfect example of how this methodology works. \n
So lets start by taking a look at what Techstars is, especially for those of you who may not be familiar with the program. \n
Techstars is a “mentorship driven startup accelerator”. This means that we are a program focused on helping early stage technology companies achieve success. And, Techstars has done a great job of achieving that goal:\n
Techstars is widely regarded to be the “most successful startup accelerator in the world”. 70% of Techstars companies have either been acquired or are still in operation. Over the past 4 years Techstars companies have raised over $30 million in outside financing, and 15% of our companies have been acquired by companies like AOL and Auttomatic. So how does Techstars do it?\n
Well, we start with a moderate amount of seed funding. Each company receives up to $18,000 in funding, which is specifically designed to cover the founders living expenses during the program, but not much else. Techstars encourages founders to bootstrap while building a very “lean” product throughout the course of the program. Overall, Tecshstars is Not focused on being a primary source of funding- No company does Techstars for the money. Instead, they do it for the:\n\n\n
Techstars brings in some of the best entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders in the world to work closely with each company\nFounders or Executives from Google, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Microsoft, and more\nInvestors managing funds of hundreds of millions\n“Mentor Dating”- Companies spend time with each mentor.  New York teams each met with 70+ mentors in 4 week period.\n\n
Beyond funding and mentorship, Techstars basically provides a startup bootcamp\nWe very openly tell our teams that we will be working at a rate that is not sustainable for more than 3 to 6 months\nWhat does that mean? We spent 3 months working 9am to 2 or 3am, 6 or 7 days a week.\nIn addition to mentor meetings, sessions with lawyers, recruiters, marketing agencies, any resource a company would need\n\n
culmination of Techstars program\nthe opportunity to present your company in front of 700+ investors, and members of the media\nMany companies raise money directly from Demo day\n\n
As I mentioned before, Techstars is a big proponent of using the Lean startup methodology when bootstrapping an early stage company. After watching how incredibly valuable this framework was to our Techstars companies, I wanted to explore how it could be applied to international entrepreneurs as well.\n
Lean startup is a methodology that dramatically lowers the barriers to entry for web startups. In a way, Lean startup has helped entrepreneurs by “tearing down the wall” that used to limit the growth of new companies- walls like a need for raising venture capital, or needing a big US based sales force in order to market software to business clients. \n